Tuesday, April 24, 2024
Chicago, IL
VIRTUAL PRESS CONFERENCE BY PEOPLE’S RESPONSE NETWORK
What: The People’s Response Network (PRN) is asking the Chicago Board of Education to give all students vaccines in their own schools to prevent dangerous and deadly outbreaks of measles, whooping cough, meningitis, pneumonia and other preventable diseases and for effective vaccine education of parents, staff, children, and the community.
Speakers:
Lonette Sims, PRN Chair
Tarek Kishawi, Parent
Paul Siegel, PRN Co-Founder
Kathy Powers, Northside Action for Justice
Howard Ehrman, MD, MPH, Former Chicago Assistant Health Commissioner
All Chicago Public Schools (CPS) should be centers for on-site vaccination of CPS children and effective vaccine education programs for students, parents, staff, and the community including the urgent need to avoid the largest U.S. outbreak of measles in 25 years from coming to Chicago.
Almost 1,000 people have gotten measles this year in 17 states, killing 3 people and hospitalizing 150, 1 in 5 people.
95% of people need to be vaccinated for measles to avoid outbreaks, but only 93% of CPS students are vaccinated.
Only 79% of CPS students are vaccinated for meningitis, a deadly disease:
- 44% of all COVID transmission happened in schools
- Free vaccines in schools eliminated polio and measles from children in the 1950s-1970s.
- Thousands of CPS students do not have vaccines to protect them from Long COVID, deafness from measles, dying from meningitis, sterility from mumps, and paralysis from polio.
- The vaccination rate of CPS students for Measles, Meningitis, Pneumococcal, Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis, and Influenza type B are substantially below the threshold for community herd immunity.
- Making Chicago Public Schools centers for on-site vaccination will save CPS parents and families money and time.
- Parents will no longer have to miss work to take their children to CVS, Walgreens, or a clinic to get a shot